Norwich lawyer scolds colleagues' Web advertising

A Norwich lawyer has filed hundreds of ethics complaints across the country, setting the stage for a possible major change in how legal services are marketed over the Internet.

JAMES MOSHER

A Norwich lawyer has filed hundreds of ethics complaints across the country, setting the stage for a possible major change in how legal services are marketed over the Internet.

Zenas Zelotes, a Norwich resident and bankruptcy lawyer, said he has filed more than 550 complaints in 47 states, claiming improper referrals are being made through Internet sites run by
Total Attorneys Inc. of Chicago. Referrals obtained through sites such as totaldivorce.com and totaldui.com breach rules against for-profit lawyer referral services, Zelotes claims.

Findings of probable cause by Connecticut’s chief disciplinary counsel, Mark DuBois, has delighted Zelotes, who said the development would lead to an eventual sweeping precedent.

“As goes Connecticut so goes the nation,” said Zelotes, whose main office is in Hartford. “This is an important issue of national concern.”

DuBois, who found probable cause against five of 12 Connecticut attorneys named by Zelotes, isn’t going that far, but says the case raises “fascinating issues” about the use of technology in marketing legal services.

“I feel like the traffic cop who has to defend the 35-mile-an-hour speed limit to a guy who has invented a car that goes 200 miles per hour,” DuBois said.

That inventor is Kevin Chern, a Chicago lawyer who, like Zelotes, specializes in bankruptcy law. Chern, president of Total Attorneys Inc., has answered Zelotes’ 37-page complaint with a 44-page defense.

“Unfortunately, this is something you have to deal with in business,” Chern said by telephone. “We’re trying to do good things for consumers and improve access to the legal system.”

Nationwide issue

The multi-state scope of the matter is raising eyebrows in law circles.

“I’ve never seen a case quite this big,” DuBois said.

Without taking sides in the matter, a prominent Connecticut lawyer applauded Zelotes’ adherence to the profession’s ethos of self-regulation.

“It’s helpful when lawyers raise issues of professional conduct,” said Wick Chambers, chairman of the Connecticut Bar Association’s ethics committee.

Connecticut’s bar association is only a trade group and Connecticut lawyers, unlike in some other states, are not required to belong to it. Ethical cases are heard by court-affiliated grievance panels that DuBois oversees.

Like DuBois, Chambers sees technology clashing with codes of a profession steeped in tradition.

“Internet advertising is a big issue for us,” he said, adding that particularly thorny is the idea of legal services being marketed by a party other than the law firm itself or referrals being made by parties outside the legal profession.

An added dimension is a 1957 Connecticut law that makes it a felony to pay for referrals to a lawyer or accepting such a payment. A guilty finding carries a $1,000 fine and is punishable by up to three years in prison. The law grew from old arguments about lawyer pay, experts say.

“There is this tension in the bar that goes back hundreds of years,” DuBois said.

Zelotes has filed a supplemental complaint against seven additional Connecticut lawyers, including Scott McGowan of Norwich. A finding of probable cause has not been made against McGowan, DuBois said.

‘Google-style’ advertising

McGowan, whose specialty is family law, advertises on Chern’s totaldivorce.com. He describes the contract he signed as “Google-style, pay-per-click advertising.”

Hearings will be held in November for lawyers to answer the findings of probable cause, DuBois said.

Chern, whose company employs 240 people, characterized Zelotes’ actions as “anticompetitive.” Zelotes, who has filed a criminal complaint against Chern, said he sees a herd mentality developing in legal circles with regard to the Internet.

“Many attorneys have been driven to this activity through fear,” Zelotes said. “The quality of legal services is bound to suffer.”